Business

Recent College Graduates Face Rough Job Market

Related Tags:

MELVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A growing number of recent college graduates are settling for jobs they didn’t need a degree for.

As TV 10/55 Long Island Bureau Chief Richard Rose reported, U.S. Labor Department statistics show that out of 3 million recent college grads, 36 percent are unemployed or have a job that didn’t require a degree. One hundred fifty thousand are in retail sales, 100,000 are waiters or bartenders, 80,000 are customer service clerks and 60,000 are performing manual labor.

Diana Barone, of East Meadow, a paralegal graduate, was among the desperate job hunters who attended a career fair in Melville on Thursday.

“I was actually going to take that route — maybe waiting tables as well because, again, I have a family to provide for,” she said.

Majid Zia, of Central Islip, has a master’s degree in management and is working as a security guard. He told Rose he’s now considering a sales job.

Recruiters acknowledge they’re seeing more overqualified applicants.

“Today, a college degree doesn’t really determine where you’re going to be working in what field,” said recruiter Toye Lane. “At this point, you have to get a job where you can get one.”

New graduate Britanni Boyd is still looking, and her college classmates aren’t having any better luck.

“They’re in retail or customer service positions, which again, aren’t what they studied for,” she said. “But when you find the opportunity, you really have to go for it.”

As a result, colleges report that more students are shifting their majors midstream to field that are hiring, such as medicine and technology.